Page images
PDF
EPUB

question, on the answer to which the expediency of taking proceedings or not will often depend, is not always an easy one. Luckily for the past fifty years Mr. Mayne has given practitioners his valuable assistance, and we are glad to see yet another edition of this wellknown work. We do not notice any important changes in it, nor have any very important cases on the subject been decided since the issue of the last edition, but the present edition has been revised and noted up to date, and continues to be the standard work on the subject.

Seventh Edition. Gale on Easements. By GEORGE CAVE, B.A. London Sweet & Maxwell, Limited. 1899.

There is hardly any branch of law which touches every householder so nearly as the Law of Easements, particularly in towns where the very existence of his house may depend upon its right to support from the neighbouring house, and his claim to light on the doctrine of ancient lights. More than most branches of law, the study of this subject requires a good text-book, as, though founded largely on the Civil Law, it has been extended and developed almost entirely by case law. We doubt if there is any other law book of the same size and importance as this which refers to so few Statutes. The only one of much importance is the Prescription Act. The first edition of this work was published in 1839, and it is interesting to observe how well Mr. Gale's original work has stood the wear and tear of sixty years' criticism, and how little the law as laid down by him has been altered by the innumerable decisions since then. One exception we notice is the doctrine of "implied reservation." Mr. Cave has adhered to the plan of including all the additions made by the various editors in brackets, though, as a rule, he has given up the attempt to distinguish between the additions of each editor. There do not seem to be many important additions to the present volume, but all the cases up to date bearing on the subject seem to have been added. It is curious that, in spite of all the high authorities who gave opinions in Dalton v. Angus, it is not yet settled whether the right of a house to support is a positive or a negative Easement. The question is rather an important one, as on the answer depends whether such an enjoyment is capable of ripening under the Prescription Act into an Easement, and is capable of being prevented by the short method of an action for trespass. Neither does it seem to be authoritatively settled whether the same amount of care is required in abating a public as a private nuisance.

The only omission we notice is that there is no reference to the Land Transfer Acts in the chapter dealing with the "Effect of a Conveyance of the Dominant Tenement."

Seventh Edition. The Principles of Bankruptcy. By RICHARD RINGWOOD, M.A. London: Stevens & Haynes. 1899. Pp. 391. Price 10s. 6d.

The last edition of this work was published in 1895, and since then hardly any legislation has taken place which in any way affects the law or practice in Bankruptcy. The only additional Statutes that Mr. Ringwood has found it necessary to refer to are the Preferential Payments in Bankruptcy Amendment Act, 1897, and the Benefices Act, 1898. It is true that a large number of bankruptcy cases have been decided in the last few years, but many of them are on small points of practice not included in the scope of this treatise, which is one on principles; but as reference is made to nearly one hundred new cases, the book has evidently been revised well up to date, and it will no doubt continue to receive the appreciation it has previously enjoyed as a clear and convenient work on the subject which it treats.

Eighth Edition. Harris's Principles of the Criminal Law. By C. L. ATTENBOROUGH. London: Stevens & Haynes. 1899. Pp. 580. Price 20s.

Such a well-known work as this does not call for much remark, and the frequency with which new editions are required speaks of the steady demand it supplies. Although a new edition was issued as lately as 1896, the necessity of including the Criminal Evidence Act, 1898, quite justifies the present issue. The Act referred to is carefully incorporated in the work where required, and is also given in full in the Appendix. The Vagrancy Act, 1898, and the Inebriates Act, 1898, are also included. We notice that Mr. Attenborough is rather misleading in his description of the Circuits, on page 296, as one would naturally conclude from it that two judges went the whole of each circuit, except the Welsh circuits, which is far from being the case. As an example of the care with which the book is noted up, we are glad to observe that a small omission in the last edition, in connection with the jurisdiction of the University of Cambridge, which was at the time pointed out in these pages, has been corrected.

Tenth Edition. Saunders' Law and Practice of Orders of Affiliation. By R. M. STEPHENSON, LL.B. London: Horace Cox. 1899. Price 6s. 6d.

It is now ten years since the last edition of this work was published, and since then both the learned author of the work and his son have died, and the editing of the new edition has been undertaken by Mr. Stephenson. Some improvements in details are introduced, such as additional subheadings and an improved index, and some forms of agreements between the mother and putative father of the child. Although few important decisions or statutes on this subject have had to be noted up, the book seems to be revised well up to date, and contains a complete and accurate treatment of this branch of law.

Seventeenth Edition. Concise Precedents in Conveyancing. By M. G. DAVIDSON, M.A., and S. WODSWORTH, M.A. London: Sweet & Maxwell, Limited. 1899.

When a book reaches its seventeenth edition it is pretty clear that it has given satisfaction to the class who require such a work. The last edition came out in 1894, and the main reason for publishing the present edition is the necessity of reference to the Land Transfer Act, 1897, on which some observations are made which will be found useful to all those who have to consider the subject of compulsory registration of title, and have dealings with registered land, etc. Although to some extent the precedents have had to be altered to meet the requirements of the Act, it has had, and probably will have, no very great influence on the practice of conveyancing.

Thirty-first Edition. Stone's Justices' Manual, being the Yearly Justices' Manual for 1899. By GEORGE B. KENNETT. London: Shaw & Sons. 1899.

This is indeed what its subtitle indicates, "A guide to the ordinary duties of a Justice of the Peace." We tremble to think of the position of Justices and their clerks, without this or some equally good work, if such there be. The present edition is of particular importance, as it includes the Criminal Evidence Act, 1898, which has made such an important change in Criminal Procedure, which Act is carefully epitomized and commented on. The author expresses the opinion that a person charged with an indictable offence has a right to give evidence on the preliminary investigation by Justices before committal for trial. Although Hawkins, J., as reported on

page 264, note (2), raised a doubt as to this point, Mr. Kennett's view seems to us to be correct; but it would have been more usefully placed in the note just referred to than in the preface. Other recent Acts added are the Locomotives Act, 1898; the Vaccination Act, 1897, which might, perhaps, have been dealt with a little more fully; the Vagrancy Act, 1898; the Inebriates Act, 1898, and the Prisons Act, 1898.

CONTEMPORARY FOREIGN LITERATURE.

Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch für das Deutsche Reich nebst dem Einführungsgesetz vom 18 August, 1896. Liliput Ausgabe. Pp. xiii., 599. Berlin, 1898.

Das Recht der Frau nach dem Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch. By HERMANN JASTROW, Amtsgerichtsrat zu Berlin. Pp. viii., 213. Berlin, 1897.

These works are examples of numerous handbooks which have recently appeared in Germany, in view of the new Civil Code which is to come into operation on the 1st of January, 1900. The new Code deals with Privatrecht only, there being already in existence Codes of Criminal Law and of Procedure. The history and scope of the new Code will be found in articles in the Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, vol. i. p. 191. The Liliput Ausgabe of the Code is an extremely neat and well-printed pocket edition, in which the 2385 permanent and 218 temporary sections. of the Code are packed into wonderfully small compass, and all for the price of a mark.

Das Recht der Frau is a recension of all the sections dealing with women and their rights and duties under the Code. With true German thoroughness the legal position of a woman from the cradle to the grave is traced in all possible aspects, as maiden, wife, mother, divorcée, widow. It is interesting to compare the Code with English law in one or two matters. Legitimation per subsequens matrimonium is allowed under certain restrictions. The grounds of divorce differ considerably from those recognized by the English courts. Lunacy for three years, and an attempt by one of the married pair on the life of the other are instances of the differences. The adultery of the husband has the same legal effect as the adultery of the wife, and is sufficient ground of divorce without any additional matrimonial offence. The position of the married woman in respect of her

property is not quite as independent as that of her English sister. Married women's property is of two kinds, Eingebrachtesgut and Vorbehaltsgut. Over the latter, or reserved property, the wife's rights are practically complete; over the former the husband has a right of administration not unlike that possessed by the husband in Roman law as dominus dotis, and no doubt derived from the Corpus Juris. The husband's rights as declared in the Code are capable of being varied by marriage settlement. A curious provision is that, after a judicial declaration of the death of one of the spouses, re-marriage of the survivor is valid, even though the person supposed to be dead afterwards turn out to be alive.

La Législation Civile de la Révolution Française. La Propriété et la Famille (1789-1804). By PнH. SAGNAC, Agrégé de l'Université, Docteur ès Lettres. Pp. xx., 455. Paris, 1899.

The scope of this work is sufficiently indicated by the title. The learned writer points out clearly and in a simple and vigorous style the problem which the Constituent Assembly and its successors had to meet and how they met it. We are carried from the days of the divisum imperium of the pays du droit écrit and the pays du droit coutumier through Cambacères' and other projected codes up to the Civil Code, till we finally reach the law as a kind of jus tripertitum, to use a Roman law phrase, for it was at once Roman, customary, and revolutionary. There are two great stages in the history of this important period of fifteen years. During the whole time there was a struggle between what Dr. Sagnac calls the philosophic and the juristic spirit. From 1789 to 1795 the former won; revolution had it all its own way. From 1795 to 1804 the latter won; a period of reaction had set in, and, above all, Roman traditions were too strong. On the whole, the influence of the droit écrit of the South is more conspicuous than that of the droit coutumier of the North. This remarkable outcome of a struggle for freedom can no doubt be variously explained. The desire for a single system in the place of locally variable ones may have been the most powerful factor in the change, especially as philosophy came to the support of the popular wish. Voltaire. in his Essai sur les Meurs, cited by Dr. Sagnac at p. 21, said, L'empire de la coutume répand la variété sur la scène de l'univers. La nature y répand l'unité.

At the beginning of the book is a most useful and carefully prepared bibliography of authorities. There is also a very interest

« PreviousContinue »